Greg Craig steps down

President Barack Obama announced on Friday that White House counsel Greg Craig will resign and named as his replacement Robert Bauer, a Democratic election lawyer who also has served as Obama’s personal lawyer.

Craig fell into disfavor with other top officials over his handling of Obama’s plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. The announcement, made in a written statement, came just hours after the president arrived in Japan for a weeklong trip to Asia.

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The White House said Bauer, currently lead counsel to the Democratic National Committee, would take over by year’s end. In the statement, Obama praised Craig as a “close friend and trusted adviser who tackled many tough challenges as White House counsel.” He cited Craig’s work in helping to select Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, setting new ethics policies at the White House and crafting new legal policies regarding national security.

In a letter to the president, Craig said, “It has been a busy first year, and I feel very lucky to have been part of it.”

Neither man mentioned Gitmo. But Craig’s exit was announced on the same day that Attorney General Eric Holder will announce the U.S. is bringing five detainees from Guantanamo Bay — including self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — to New York City to stand trial.

Holder told reporters Friday he was surprised by Craig’s departure and said he should not shoulder all the blame for missteps in the Gitmo process.

“It was a surprise," Holder said. "Greg Craig is a great lawyer. He has, I think, contributed in a significant way to the success of this administration and I think to the success of the effort to close Guantanamo. Greg is a friend of mine and those who have tried to place on him, I think, an unfair proportion of the blame as to why things have not proceeded, perhaps as we've wanted, with respect to Guantanamo, that is simply unfair."

Supporters of the administration’s efforts to close Guantanamo said they were concerned that the timing of Craig’s departure could be interpreted as a signal that Obama is wavering in his commitment to closing the prison, which currently houses about 200 terror suspects. In recent weeks, officials have acknowledged that the administration is unlikely to meet Obama’s self-imposed deadline to shutter the facility by Jan. 22.

Craig’s critics said he failed to anticipate the wave of criticism in Congress, which led to a series of lopsided votes last spring against bringing any Guantanamo detainees to the U.S. While many observers said it was a mistake to ask Congress for $80 million to close Guantanamo before being ready to announce where the prisoners would go in the U.S. and how they would be tried, Craig’s allies said the notion that he decided such issues of legislative strategy by himself was preposterous.

“The policy on Guantanamo that Obama inherited was a complete mess — legally, practically, and every which way. Cleaning it up was never going to be easy or pretty, and it was always going to involve difficult choices. But the president identified it as an early priority, and he was fortunate to have Greg in there forcing people to make those choices,” Elissa Massimino of Human Rights First said early Friday. “The guy charged with getting that done is never going to be popular. But he has been effective. And eventually, when the 9/11 plotters are finally brought to justice in federal court, Greg will deserve a portion of the credit.”

According to officials, the White House took much of the Guantanamo portfolio away from Craig earlier this year, handing most policy issues to the National Security Council, legislative issues to Obama senior adviser Pete Rouse, and communications issues to deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

Craig, 64, also faced criticism for delays in the vetting process and for the White House being blindsided by a Justice Department legal brief which caused outrage among many of Obama’s gay supporters.